


A Brother's Keeper

by firemoonlily



Category: Devil May Cry, Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Brother Prompt, Dadte, Dante is mid 60's here?, Gen, Noct is only mentioned and injured, Too Tired For This Shit, but doing it anyway, more like GrandDadte, only mentioned and past Regis/Clarus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-29
Updated: 2017-07-29
Packaged: 2018-12-08 09:02:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11643285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firemoonlily/pseuds/firemoonlily
Summary: Gladio needs to get stronger, he knows it. Dante knows he knows it.That worries Dante.Time to talk to the kid.





	A Brother's Keeper

**Author's Note:**

> For the Brothers prompt in the Chill FFXV discord chat. Thanks to everyone for encouraging me to write this crossover finally!!
> 
> A special thank you to my buddy Tay, for all the Dante help <3

Dante could see it in the way Gladio’s shoulders sat, tensed and tight, fists clenched in his lap; he blamed himself for the mess him and his little brother were in. The older man sauntered over, two glasses of sweet tea at the ready. “Here, have a drink. I’d offer something stronger, but it’d just make you feel worse.”

It was easy to ignore Gladiolus glaring at him, even as he accepted the drink and took a sip. Dante stayed standing as he drank his tea, empty hand shoved in his pocket. They stayed like that, quiet and still, for a few minutes.

“So, how’re you doing kid?”

Clearly, that set something off in Gladio, who slammed down his glass and nearly snarled at Dante. 

“How do you think I’m doing!? Our dads are dead, Noctis has to go around getting shit ready for a shitty mission, the Imperials are after us, and Noct is hurt and it’s my fau-” Gladio choked on the words and finally tore his eyes away, blinking rapidly as he glared at the ground. 

Dante ignored the aggression put up, and instead groaned as he took a seat on the porch step next to Gladio. “Gods I’m getting old. So, I heard earlier that you spoke to Cor about going to visit Gilgamesh? Try and get stronger to protect your little brother? You gotta be careful with that. It’s a dangerous slope.”

Gladio snapped to his feet and began pacing around like a caged couerl. “How would you know?! You’ve got your family here! You guys have this place, all safe and shit, the Empire doesn’t even wanna get here!”

Too many years had passed for Dante to take that bait and rise to Gladio’s anger. Instead, Dante took another drink before he set his glass to the side and leaned back on his hands. This’d be easier looking up at the ceiling of the back porch than looking at Gladio.

“My brother wanted to be strong enough to protect us, and he went mad. Killed a lot of people. Hell, people are still dying because of what he did.”

That stopped the younger man in his tracks, startled and rightfully ashamed of his outburst towards honestly, a near stranger. “What?”

“Before my twin brother and I were born, before he even knew our mom, our dad was born and raised in Empire land. Worked for them for a while. I’m not sure what exactly happened to be honest; I heard that he was sent to scout a village and suddenly realized they were just  _people_ , but whatever it was, he defected from the Empire and formed a resistance of sorts. Not a big one, mostly him and a couple friends, but he still struck a blow. Pissed them off. I was six when they caught up and took him as a prisoner of war. Vergil and I were eight when the Empire caught up with us. Mom got us out of there, but the daemons got to her, and the fire burned everything we had. Verge and I got separated.”

Another sip of tea. He could tell that Gladio wanted to speak, his mouth opening, but Dante knew if he stopped now, he wasn’t gonna start again. This was why he had tea instead of beer, ugh.

“Found him again when we were 18. There was some crazy shit, and in the end, I lost him again. When I saw him again 10 years later he’d--” Dante choked up and closed his eyes as he took a deep breath. “He’d worked with the Empire I think. Trying to get stronger, strong enough to make up for not saving our mom and keeping us together. Whatever happened, he wasn’t alive anymore. His body was some sort of sick shell for daemons, and I had to go to this little island infested with demons to clean it out. Gladiolus, in protecting his little brother, Vergil left me to kill what was left of his body and not even knowing I had a nephew until the kid was all grown up. Trying to get stronger is all well and good; I had to ask Gilgamesh for help myself when I went to save Nero that first time. But you gotta be careful what you leave behind. Don’t be gone for too long, or you could lose yourself.”

Gladio’s jaw flapped uselessly. What do you say when you have a guy tell you his whole life’s trauma? Especially in an attempt to steer him from, clearly, some awful path another had gone down. He ran a hand through his hair before swiping it over his face.

“Well, fuck. Uh, I mean, sorry for your loss. I’m not planning on going crazy and trying to overthrow my brother anytime soon. Or ever.” The thought wasn’t feasible; why would he ever hurt Noctis? Though, he was sure that was something Dante once thought about Vergil.

“Thanks for the concern though. I’ll ah, keep that in mind.”

Dante nodded, appeased by the promise and not wanting to be out here anymore. He was ready to plop down on his couch, slap a magazine on his face and call it a day for the next two days. Before he headed inside, Dante smiled tiredly at Gladio.

“By the way, Gladiolus? You’re a good Shield. I’ve got faith in you.”


End file.
